What makes a tent
right for your family and its camping needs? Let me show you
how to pick the correct camping tent that fits your budget and how to take care
of it so it will last for many happy camping seasons.

As a first-time
camper you will rely on a tent for shelter for you and your
family. Not only shelter from the wind, rain and morning dew,
but also from pesky bugs. No, not your kids, those bugs that
fly. ☺ There are a great variety of outdoor tents available for your
camping adventure. For your purposes you will want a tent
that is light and portable. Most of the tents in the market
today have double-thick nylon or polyester walls, dual-zippered doors,
screening, a rain fly and shock-cord poles that fold up neatly into a
small package. The four most important factors to consider
when choosing a tent are:

Season

Size

Strength

Shape

1.
Season – there are typically three- and
four-season camping tents available. Three-season tents are for
spring, summer and fall. They typically have mosquito or
“No-see-um” netting panels that zip-in and allow
plenty of warm weather ventilation. The one I have has bug
panels and a nylon panel. I can roll up the interior nylon
panel out of the way giving the tent a screen door effect.
When I roll up the panel in the rear of the tent I can get a nice cross
breeze during summer camping and keep the bugs out. In the
fall the panel stays zipped-up to break the wind.

Four-season camping tents
are built for winter camping and may have extra poles for stability and
thicker panels and outer shell. Since I don’t
imagine any of you doing this right away, just tuck this information
away for when you need it.

2.
Size – camping tents are marked as 2-person tent, 3-person tent,
etc. Regardless of how they are “rated”
you need to pick a tent that suits your space requirements for all your
campers and your gear. I have found that a 2-person tent will
barely fit two campers and has no room for your camping gear. A
4-person tent gives two campers lots of elbowroom and space to stow
your gear. As a “rule of thumb” add 2 to
the number of campers you want in the tent and you will have enough
room. So, for a family of 4, pick a 6-person tent and you'll have the perfect family tent.

If you can, borrow
or rent different camping tents and take them on overnight campouts to see what
they are like. I’ve also found that some sporting
goods stores have tents set-up in their showrooms. Find one
you think will fit your needs and crawl around in it. Check
out the size, comfort, quality of construction and most importantly,
the ease of setting up and taking down.

I can remember
taking my kids with me to the local sporting goods store and having
them get in the tents with me, zipping up the tent and laying down
inside to see how it felt to them. I also wanted to see if
they could work the zippers without any trouble.

3.
Strength – while you are crawling around the
inside of the tent checking it out, look for double-seamed stitching,
heavy-duty zippers, sturdy poles and secure grommets.
Grommets are the metal “o” rings at the corners of
the tents that you stick the end of the tent poles into. Make
sure you feel comfortable with how these are stitched to the floor of
the tent.

4.
Shape – In the last chapter we went into all the
“popular” shapes of tents including
“A” frame, Dome tents and Walled tents. For a
review you can quick link to: “Essential
Camping Gear for Beginner Campers”. From
my experience I have chosen a dome tent for a number of reasons:

More
spacious with lots of headroom.

Some
have multiple rooms and vestibules! Separate rooms give you
privacy or an area to store gear.

Dome
shape offers good stability, even in strong winds.

Easy
to clean and dry. You can pull the stakes out of a dome tent
and flip it upside down in the morning to dry the bottom of the tent
floor!

In addition to the
four important areas mentioned above, here’s a few more that
will broaden your knowledge. Remember: Knowledge is Power!

Most
tents these days have a rain fly that fits over the top of the tent for
rain protection. If you notice the picture on the left
without the rain fly, the top of the tent is screened to allow for
proper ventilation while you are sleeping. Hot air from
sleeping bodies rises and goes out the top of the tent.
During inclement weather the rain fly protects the screened top from
water while still allowing ventilation.

Make sure the rain
fly goes over the whole top of the tent and at least half way down the
side of the tent and has guy lines to firmly attach it to the
tent. The one I have goes about halfway down the wall of the
tent and has elastic cords with hooks on the end to attach it to a hook
sewn into the seam of the tent walls.

Most modern camping tents
have what’s called a tub
floor. This is a seamless, heavy-duty waterproof
material that lines the floor of the tent and goes up the wall about
4-6 inches before it is sewn into the wall. It gets its name
because it looks like a bathtub. But, its purpose is to keep
any side seams away from the ground so that leaks can’t
occur. Make sure the tent you pick has a tub of heavy-duty
polyurethane coated nylon to provide maximum water
protection. Protect this flooring by sweeping up any dirt and
debris that gets on it and by using a ground cloth under it.
A simple throw rug or carpet remnant put inside the front door of the
tent can serve as a doormat for everyone’s boots and shoes
when they enter. That way you keep the floor clean and free
of debris.

Care for your
tent and it will take care of you

Here
are some TIPS on how to make your tent last many seasons:

Use a
ground cloth under your tent. This will protect the floor
from rocks and twigs and keep moisture from seeping through. HOT TIP: Always
tuck the edges of your ground cloth beneath the floor of your tent so
that rainwater will not collect on the ground cloth and run under the
tent. ☹

Take
off boots or shoes when entering the tent.

Keep
the inside clean by sweeping or tipping it up and shaking out debris.

Never
store a wet or damp tent. This will cause
mildew…yuck! When you get home from a wet campout
put the tent over a clothesline, fence or patio chairs to dry it
out. If the weather won’t permit this, hang the
tent on a couple of nails in the garage. But, make sure you
dry it out.

Seal
the seams of your tent. When I buy a new camping tent I also purchase
some sealer. I setup the tent in the backyard and seal the
seams. This also allows me to become familiar with the setup
and take down of my new tent!

NEVER
store food in your tent. Critters will tear a hole in your
tent to get that food. Store food in your car.